SOUTH KOREA
N Korea flies more trash
North Korea has floated hundreds more trash-filled balloons southward, the military said yesterday, the latest salvo in the two countries’ tit-for-tat campaigns of provocation and propaganda. North Korea has launched more than 900 trash balloons over the past three days, including about 190 late on Friday, about 100 of which have already landed, mainly in Seoul and northern Gyeonggi Province, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The bags attached to the balloons contained “mostly paper and plastic waste,” the military said, adding that they posed no safety risk to the public. North Korea has sent nearly 5,000 trash-filled balloons south since May, saying they are retaliation for propaganda balloons launched north by South Korean activists.
COLUMBIA
Court calls for hippo hunt
The Administrative Court of Cundinamarca on Friday called for the hunting of hippos, introduced to the country in the 1980s by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. The court set a three-month deadline for the Ministry of Environment to issue “a regulation that contemplates measures for the eradication of the species,” which is affecting the area’s “ecological balance.” In their homeland in Africa, the animals are responsible for more human deaths than almost any other animal, but in Colombia, the hippopotami have become loved members of the local community and a tourist attraction. They have also been increasingly posing problems for the local community near Escobar’s old ranch in Antioquia Department — one that experts worry might soon turn deadly.
JAPAN
Hisahito turns 18
In a big milestone for the royal family, Prince Hisahito turned 18 on Friday, becoming the first male royal family member to reach adulthood in almost four decades. It is a significant development for a family that has ruled for more than a millennium, but faces the same existential problems as the rest of the nation — a fast-aging, shrinking population. Hisahito, who is set to become emperor one day, is the nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito. His father, Crown Prince Akishino, was the last male to reach adulthood in the family, in 1985. His status as the last heir apparent poses a major problem for a system that does not allow empresses. The government is debating how to keep succession stable without relying on women.
UNITED STATES
Animal lovers cause crash
Two animal lovers who stopped on a US freeway to rescue a stranded kitten caused a three-vehicle crash — and then lost the cat they were trying to help. The couple on Wednesday spotted the stray moggy as they drove east on the CA-91 near Los Angeles, California Highway Patrol Officer Javier Navarro said. After the female driver pulled over, the male passenger jumped out and grabbed the kitty, while traffic was blocked. “Another car comes up behind them and swerves to the left to avoid rear-ending them, clips the left rear of the last car” sending it careering towards the man holding the cat, Navarro said. “The driver of that car swerves right to avoid the pedestrian, and ends up going across all lanes and hitting a semi-truck.” Meanwhile, the man holding the cat hopped the center-divider to get out of the path of the car — dropping the animal in the process. Three vehicles were damaged in the incident, though no one was injured. As for the cat, “he doesn’t get hit, he doesn’t get hurt. He made it across on his own,” Navarro said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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